Nidar
Somali · deity · Somali traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Nidar is the divine righter of wrongs in pre-Islamic Somali belief: the avenger of injustice and champion of those exploited by their fellow human beings, a lesser deity charged with punishing evil within the moral order of the sky-god Waaq. Unusually for a figure of the old religion, Nidar survives vividly in modern Somali speech through the proverbial warning 'Nidar baa ku heli' — 'Nidar will catch up with you' — used to declare that wrongdoing will not go unavenged.
Domains
- justice and retribution
- protection of the wronged
Powers
- to punish wrongdoers and oppressors
- to defend the exploited and the wronged
Epithets
- Nidar baa ku heliMohamed Diriye Abdullahi, Culture and Customs of Somalia (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001), pp. 65-67. (secondary)
Relations
- subordinate to: WaaqNidar, the lesser deity charged with avenging wrong, acted within the moral order presided over by the supreme sky-god Waaq.Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, Culture and Customs of Somalia (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001), pp. 65-67. (secondary)
Sources
- Nidar is the pre-Islamic Somali divine righter of wrongs and avenger of the oppressed, who punishes evildoers and defends the exploited.: Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, Culture and Customs of Somalia (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001), pp. 65-67. (secondary); I. M. Lewis, Peoples of the Horn of Africa: Somali, Afar and Saho (London: International African Institute, 1955), pp. 138-141. (secondary)